Filesharing

What you need to know about sharing music, movies and more...

It is important to remember that unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material, including peer-to-peer file sharing, may subject a person to civil and criminal liabilities. This page is meant to help you understand what is legal and what is not and to highlight some of the risks of peer-to-peer filesharing.

Sharing files is not itself a crime. Uploading lawfully (your own original work, for example) is fine, as is downloading of materials you have legal permission to use. Unfortunately, the majority of filesharing activity is not legal. Many programs exist to aid the downloading and distribution of illegal content. These programs often obfuscate the fact that users are distributing as well as downloading material protected by copyright and many people engaged in filesharing activities are unaware that they could be participating in this illegal traffic..